Spencer's Pantry

Friday, July 8, 2011

Well it only took me 8 months to put up info and pictures of the Mugaritz dinner. You know why? It was a disappointment. More expensive than the Arzak experience and just cold and impersonal... Not to mention I didn't really find flavor until the desert courses.

You choose a dining experience depending on you tastes.

I chose neither, they made a custom meal for me until I said stop.

A potato baked in edible clay with garlic aioli.

More of a "look we made it look like a stone" than flavorful.

Garden turnip in octopus broth.

The turnip was very fibrous but the broth had nice flavor.

Squid and braised leeks.

The broth was made from caramelized leeks, tender squid but lacked salt.

Red cardoons, milk sheet and chufa water.

Crunchy nice cardoons but then too sweet of chufa flavor and a bland milk sheet.

Bread stew, pink geranium, snow crab.

Do you sense a theme here? I like to use broths in some of my dishes

but I mix it up way more than this. Pretty cool use of geranium and nice crab.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

I knew it was going to be good but...........................best and most eye opening meal I've had. The restaurant was run by the father for years (opened in 1968) and recently the daughter has taken charge. He still comes through the dining room though, as does she to describe the courses you're going to have. Good god they're nice and it shows in their food.

I actually had a hard time sleeping last night in anticipation. Right when I got out of my taxi in front of the place I met a guy from Sweden who was there solo like me, awesome to talk to him about traveling through Europe and I'm sure we'll connect later.

Followers

Learn stuff!

Growing up in the Bay Area I was exposed to the slow food movement early on. After cooking professionally for 8 years I have the foundation to create my own dishes.
A lot of product grown in my own garden, can't get more organic produce than that. New techniques like sous vide and chemicals that make sense to use and don't alter the ingredient too much. I'll try and get across the type of food that I love to make, hopefully you guys can learn a couple things!